Customer Reviews

All Eternals Deck

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Wow, after all of the innumerable albums John Darnielle has put out, I didn't think that I could be surprised. The rock concept has finally come together. If you are new to Mountain Goats, here is a brief recap. All Hail West Texas is a classic of the boombox era, and cherished by lo-fi heads everywhere. Tallahassee and The Sunset Tree are absolute masterpieces. They captured Darnielle's songwriting and lyrics perfectly, with better production value. Get Lonely is good mood music, but not quite as good as the two previously mentioned. Then, to many Mountain Goat's fan's horror, they started making Rock music. Heretic Pride is great at times, but so inconsistent that I have only listened to it start to finish once. The Life of the World to Come is a good offering, but I didn't feel that it added anything to the catalog, and I almost never listen to it. I bought All Eternals Deck today expecting a similar experience: good, but more of the same. I was wrong. There is a variety of sound here without it wandering or giving it an inconsistent feel. These are some of the best rock songs that Darnielle has written, and probably the most accessible album to date, though I would still recommend Tallahassee and Sunset Tree to newbies.

Odd that this only has three and a half stars. This is the first album I've encountered by these guys (this guy?), but the lyrics are the greatest thing I've heard since I was a 16 year old kid listening night after night to Pavement's "Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain." The guy really is America's Best Living Non-Hiphop Lyricist, as the New Yorker dubbed him-- usually I would be skeptical, but Jesus, some of his lines are unbelievable. The track that really got me hooked was the second one, with its line about "the rooms with the heat lamps, where the snakes are born." Such a wonderful image; like "Suzanne" or "Stop Breathing" I wouldn't put any money on what the song means exactly, but it is full of mystery and conjures up its own complete world in just a couple of verses.

The music is growing on me, and in fact it gets better with every listen. Like Bob Dylan said in response to an interviewer who criticized his voice, if you listen you'll hear all the right notes. The bare bones instrumentation, to my mind, adds to things, since what we hear are more the forms of songs that could be performed by many other artists, with different arrangements and points of emphasis, much like Dylan's songs were. I detect a Warren Zevon influence in places, though I could be wrong.

Anyway, it's sad that more people aren't listening to this, and that some of those who have listened to it are giving it mediocre reviews.

I've been listening to The Mountain Goats for years, and each release has been an enjoyable experience. Darnielle has produced a wealth of musical short stories, and he shows no signs of letting up. At first pass this album may seem a bit forgettable, but repeat listens are highly rewarding - yielding musical depth and fantastic lyrics. "High Hawk Season" is a show-stopper, sporting stirring vocal harmonies. And "Never Quite Free" is musically and lyrically moving. There are some duds ("Age of Kings" and "For Charles Bronson"), but overall this is a solid 4-star album, well worth hearing and owning.

On the surface it could be easy to take a dismissive attitude towards this album. This album which is the 13th proper studio album is just another album of articulate songwriting which affects you on an emotional level. What is remarkable is that John Darnielle continues to consistently release albums full of articulate songs which affect you on an emotional level. It is all too easy to take his genius for granted. He continues to be one of greatest living lyricist and he has the knack musically to just do enough to get the message across. A definite gem of an album.

All Eternal Deck is one of those few albums that grow on you until you are obsessed with it. I think it's pure musical genius. The changing moods, the metaphors that can mean so many different things to a listening audience. All the songs are great. Some have said Age of Kings and Charles Bronson were the weakest songs on the list, but I ask you to listen again. These are songs of hope, beauty, real life and sometimes just plain fun to listen to. I have learned that with the Mountain Goats you have to listen and then listen some more. I believe this is part of the plan, John Darnell wants us to experience the music, not just let it wash over us and then be on our way. Each time we hear a song it is a new experience. That's how music should be.

A story, an experience, a memory.

I got the vinyl version of this and I must say, it is beautifully mastered and pressed. The sound is pristine. I would recommend spending the extra bucks for the vinyl instead of the CD if you have a turntable.

This is a great CD release effort by the talented rock band The Mountain Goats, titled 'All Eternals Deck'. This great CD (13 tracks) show cases the versatility of John Darnielle as a serious singer-songwriter. The CD opens rather excellently well with a solid track/gem "Damn These Vampires" : great guitar, melody & vocals. Other solid tracks/gems include "Outer Scorpion Squadron" (a slow beautiful grand-piano/violin combination with great vocals to boot), "Never Quite Free" (a wonderful ballad with great piano/guitar/vocal combination) & "Liza Forever Minnelli" (a racy-tempo beautiful track : very melodic, great bass/guitar combination). Great tracks include "Birth Of Serpents", "Age Of Kings" (mellow track with great guitar chords & violin), "High Hawk Season" (laid-back track with great choral vocals accompanying guitar & great chorus), "Prowl Great Cain", "Sourdoire Valley Song" & "For Charles Bronson" (great bass/vocal combination). Okay tracks include "Estate Sale Sign" (a rather noisy alternative rock track) & "Beautiful Gas Mask". On the overall, I was pleasantly surprised by the great music dished out by this talented rock band The Mountain Goats, their CD release : 'All Eternals Deck' is not a mystery (eternals deck = tarot deck as the title suggests) but a highly recommended CD listening.

The best that I can explain it so far is that I always listen to music in the background. Except for a couple annoying tracks, the rest mostly just blended in. I haven't given the lyrics the attention they deserve yet, but overall reminds of of Get Lonely. It's mostly kind of simple, in terms of the music and instrumentals, and just blends in. Nothing as strong and enjoyable as This Year, unfortunately.

UPDATED: Initial impression stands after multiple additional listens. It is overly simplistic and boring for the majority of the album.

My roommate went to his show a couple weeks ago and was relieved that he played a lot of older songs and not just the ones of this album, similarly.

For some reason the comment system kept truncating my expanded explanations below - sorry about that or you'd have known I kept listening and being semi-disappointed since then.

By in the background I never meant ignored. Just that I always have music on, no matter what I'm doing. This album was less engaging than just about anything else in my collection.

14th album from North Carolina cult icon John Darnielle & band. His perceptive and somewhat

disturbed singer/songwriter mentality creates a world where cryptic lyrics with detailed imagery

erupt from a gentle voice that quavers on the edge of emotional destruction, but retains the power

of conviction. The music is simple, pure, unadorned--basic full-band acousto-electric

instrumentation that compliments the vocal delivery like a tool so well integrated that it melts into

the source. I'm not sure what that means either, but there is some kind of quiet magic at work

here, though the trick itself is sometimes hidden. Sometimes recalls Iron & Wine, Leonard

Cohen, Bill Callahan.

The lead track, Damn These Vampires, is so powerful and brilliantly executed that it just makes the rest of the album all the more bittersweet. The album as a whole seems to be separate from the lead singer who often experiments with his voice to disastrous consequences. Specifically the chorus of Age of Kings is filled with unrestrained warbling. I'd highly, highly recommend the first track but after that the vocals, and even the lyrics, just fall apart.

Stand-out track: Damn These Vampires